10 Video Games With Bizarre Origin Stories
5. Jean-Claude Van Damme Almost Killed Mortal Kombat
One thing that every good fighting game needs to succeed is a strong cast. Think of any of the big franchises within that genre and you’re immediately conjuring up a host of classic and iconic character designs. Mortal Kombat is absolutely no different, in fact it may well be one of the best in this regard, but it didn’t necessarily start off this way.
Mortal Kombat co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias found themselves working with Midway Entertainment, who were extremely interested in their proposal for a fighting game using large, digitised characters. Actors would be filmed and then placed into the game’s world over sprites.
Midway turned down the original pitch for a ninja-themed fighting game and instead wanted to use digitised characters to create a tie-in for Jean Claude Van Damme’s Universal Soldier picture. A demonstration was prepared for the actor, but Van Damme was already in talks for another video game project (that ironically wound up falling through).
So, in light of this, Midway allowed Boon and Tobias to chase their original proposal.
In ode to this series of events that nearly derailed Mortal Kombat, the pair created Johnny Cage: a Hollywood actor whose split-legged punch to the groin was a nod to a moment in Van Damme’s Bloodsport.